You know seven of them were still alive the day after.
"Hijacker returns to US after 29 years in Cuba" by Curt Anderson | Associated Press, November 07, 2013
MIAMI — An American who hijacked an airliner to Cuba nearly 30 years ago as a self-described revolutionary flew back home Wednesday to face US justice.
FBI agents took William Potts, 56, into custody shortly after his charter flight from Havana landed at Miami International Airport, said FBI spokesman Mike Leverock. Potts faces a 1985 federal indictment charging him with air piracy for hijacking a Piedmont Airlines flight in 1984.
In interviews prior to leaving Cuba, Potts said he was seeking ‘‘closure’’ and hoped to persuade US prosecutors to give him credit for the 13-plus years he spent in a Cuban prison for hijacking the flight. The US charge carries a sentence of between 20 years and life in prison, according to federal prosecutors.
Gitmo.
‘‘My position is I am a free man. I have served my time,’’ Potts said. ‘‘But they seem to have another concept. They are going to take control of me. I will be under their authority.’’
Potts was taken initially from the airport to the FBI’s Miami field office and later will be transferred to a downtown detention center. Potts is scheduled to make his initial appearance in federal court Thursday, where the first order of business will be getting him a lawyer.
US authorities have aggressively prosecuted some returning fugitives, while others saw their sentences reduced significantly for time served elsewhere. Typically, a criminal defendant who pleads guilty and accepts responsibility qualifies for a more lenient sentence.
In the 1960s and 1970s, dozens of American aircraft were hijacked to communist Cuba at the height of the Cold War. But by the time Potts commandeered his plane, they had become less frequent and Cuba had begun prosecuting the hijackers.
*********************
Potts said he thought Cuba would welcome him and offer training as a guerrilla. Instead, he was convicted of air piracy. He was later given permanent residency in Cuba and has been living recently in a modest apartment east of Havana.
In 2009, Potts called himself the ‘‘homesick hijacker’’ in an Associated Press article about his desire to one day return to the United States.
Even though Potts could have stayed in Cuba, he decided to take his chances with the legal system. The pending US case against him keeps him from living his life fully, he said.
‘‘It’s time it had closure. Why leave it hanging, why leave this gaping uncertainty?’’ he said. ‘‘So I want to resolve that because . . . having completed my sentence, I feel like I want to put all that stuff behind me. . . . Once you’ve paid your debt to society you’re entitled to a fresh start.’’
Not in AmeriKa, not anymore.
--more--"
"Hijacker who returned to US denied bail in Fla." by Curt Anderson | AP Legal Affairs Writer, November 20, 2013
MIAMI — An American who returned from Cuba to face US charges that he hijacked an airliner to Havana decades ago was denied release on bail Tuesday, in part because of an outstanding arrest warrant claiming he committed a New Jersey armed robbery.
Assistant US Attorney Maria Medetis said at a bail hearing that William Potts faces still-active charges that he robbed a gas station attendant at knifepoint in Bergen County, N.J., on March 26, 1984. That is the day before Potts boarded a New York-to-Miami flight and hijacked it to Havana by claiming in a note that he was a black militant called ‘‘Lt. Spartacus’’ who had bombs on board, according to the FBI.
Medetis told US Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman that Potts would be arrested by New Jersey authorities if released on bail in the hijacking case. She also contended that Potts, a fugitive for nearly 30 years, could easily flee prosecution and is a danger to the community, based on the robbery charge and the hijacking itself.
‘‘He has on a number of occasions admitted to the offense,’’ Medetis said. ‘‘He described what he did as an act of terrorism.’’
Potts’s attorney, Paul Korchin, noted that Potts voluntarily returned to the United States to resolve the charges and that his mother and several siblings living in the Atlanta area would cosign for any bail amount.
That was probably a bad move.
Related: Old Jersey
His two daughters, Korchin said, were permitted to come from Cuba to the United States in December 2012 and now live with Potts’s mother.
‘‘He has arrived at the place he wants to be,’’ Korchin said.
Goodman, however, sided with the prosecutor against bail, noting that under air piracy laws there is a presumption for a defendant to be kept jailed before trial except under unusual circumstances.
Goodman also noted that Potts faces a sentence of 20 years to life, a prime incentive to flee the country.
--more--"
Any word on the Cuban Five?
